Review by Choice Review
Traditional accounts of the British women's suffrage campaign have stressed the differences between the suffragettes' nonviolent methods and the militant suffragettes' use of violence. This book is not a retelling of that familiar story, but a significant reinterpretation of the suffragette movement. Mayhall (Catholic Univ.) links the suffragettes with the 19th-century British democratic radical movement, both in terms of the demand for a broadening of citizenship rights and in the use of militant methods. She views the women's participation in the antiwar movement during the Boer War as important training for their future resistance to the state. Although all suffragettes urged such resistance, Mayhall stresses the differences between them. A small minority engaged in arson and bombing while the majority rejected violence in favor of passive resistance, such as nonpayment of taxes. But after 1930, suffragettes' recollections focused on militant actions, thereby privileging the minority and obscuring the larger principle underlying resistance to the state. ^BSumming Up: Strongly recommended. British historians and students of women's history at all levels. H. L. Smith University of Houston--Victoria
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
